Activity Theory vs Cognitive Science in the Study of Human-Computer Interaction

This paper discusses the shortcomings of the cognitive science approach to understanding human cognition particularly in its relationship to human computer interaction. Its failure to distinguish between the psychic and the information processes in human and machine has led to a view of the computer as a 'replacement' for the human in intellectual spheres and the implication that a computer program is a theory of human thinking. An alternate psychological approach, namely Activity Theory, is suggested as a more broad based and durable framework for understanding 'humans interacting with computers' as it details the importance of work activity as the unit of analysis and emphasises the contextuality of computer use.